Larry Drew brought 33 years of NBA experience to the Milwaukee Bucks when he took over as coach last year.

It would take a teenager who didn't speak English very well just one day to pick out a mistake in his playbook.

Long before Giannis Antetokounmpo was a bright spot in a bleak season for the Bucks, before we discovered that he was a hard worker and the personal champion for his immigrant family, he was a complete mystery to his own coach.

Drew barely had the keys to the Cousins Center when he walked by the NBA draft board and saw the name: Antetokounmpo.

"I didn't know this kid," said Drew.

Director of scouting Billy McKinney gave Drew a highlight tape of an 18-year-old player from Greece who could play above the rim but who also tethered the basketball while running up and down the court. Drew figured he was 6 feet 1 inch "because he's doing things like a guard."

Antetokounmpo was 6-9.

And the Bucks made Antetokounmpo their first-round draft choice a month later.

That's a tough assignment for any coach — to take over a struggling team and then take on a total stranger. Drew couldn't help but wonder — what do I have to work with?

At a summer tournament in Europe, Drew got his answer when Antetokounmpo took a rebound off the glass, sprinted to the other end, faked out one defender at the top of the key, drove by traffic in the lane and threaded the needle with a bounce pass to the open man.

"That sold me," said Drew. "That play there was an NBA play. My wheels got to turning."

•••

On the first day that the Bucks assembled as a team last fall, Drew handed out his playbook. It was a big book, a booster seat for a toddler at the kitchen table. The players collected the materials and dispersed. Hours later, Drew was at home.

"Giannis texted me and told me he was going through his playbook," said Drew. "Now, I would guess that he was the only one from the team that picked that playbook up on Day 1. He was going through, page by page by page by page and caught an error in one of the offensive plays.

"And he corrected me. I made a mistake, in the playbook. I was shocked that he was able to discover that."

This is how Drew and Antetokounmpo began down their road together — doing what they knew how to do, but also studying each other. When Giannis turned 19 in December, Drew decided he had to adjust his coaching a little. The coach remembered playing a season in Italy, in the middle of his professional career, and the solitude, the different food, the different culture. "It was tough," he said.

He felt empathy for his rookie.

So Drew made sure the kid had his cell phone number so he could text him anytime. And early on, Antetokounmpo did.

"A lot," said Drew.

A father to three boys, Drew thought of sending one of them away to another country at Antetokounmpo's age. He would want a coach to be a father figure to them, and so he started to feel protective of Antetokounmpo. His approach became a little less demanding and a little more instructive.

"I'm not a screamer but I can lose my cool sometimes," said Drew. "I try to be a little more selective with him when I'm correcting. I don't want to show favoritism but I have to recognize the fact that this kid is only 19 years old."

Drew and his staff have caught themselves throwing out names and plays and instructions so fast in a game, or in practice, with Antetokounmpo nodding along — but maybe not really caught up.

"There's something he might be missing," said Drew. "We have to keep reminding ourselves that we've got a guy that doesn't speak fluid English and he doesn't understand fluid English.

That's a good reminder for all of us. Though he averages 7.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists and represented the Bucks at the all-star break as a rising star, at the Cousins Center, Antetokounmpo finished practice, the last one to leave the court for the second time this particular week, after working on his post moves and free throws. He's a hard worker but still a kid in some ways, showing coaches a clipboard with a drawing of a simple house on it.

"I penned this," he said.

He is young, but his time to develop ran out when the Bucks were hit with a ridiculous amount of injuries at the start of the season. Antetokounmpo's ready smile lacks the usual weariness of older NBA veterans. While the Bucks have been punished with the worst record in the NBA and sections of seats at the BMO Harris Bradley Center are abandoned, he's been a reason to watch. He's a popular interview request, including one more on this day.

"Noooooo," he says, cornered between the weights and the locker room.

"Three minutes I will talk, that's all," he says. "Maybe four.

"Four and a half."

He takes a seat with a heavy sigh, cutting his towering height in half. He has grown an inch this season, to 6-10.

He speaks English pretty well and he's patient in conversation, but when he doesn't understand something, he doesn't fake a response or an answer — he asks for an explanation. He wants to understand everything.

And it starts off with the fact he's bulked up a little with the Bucks' strength and conditioning routines. Drew said he's caught Antetokounmpo checking himself out in the mirror.

"W—hat?" said Antetokounmpo, mortified, briefly.

Is that wrong? Was coach kidding?

"No...it's true..." said Antetokounmpo. "I can not believe he say that..."

He weighs more than 205 pounds, although how much more he doesn't know. He says it doesn't matter. He's stronger and faster and that will help his NBA game.

"You've got to be a little strong to have your own balance and for contact, so they don't push you out of the play," said Antetokounmpo. "I don't believe that if you're stronger, you're going to be better. Kevin Durant is not strong, you know? And he's one of the best players in the league, maybe one of the best players in history."

Strength is not something he worries about because it is already in his genes.

•••

Giannis' father, Charles, played professional soccer for three years in Nigeria. His mother, Veronica, was a high jumper. They are both tall and athletic-looking.

They have just recently relocated from Greece to Milwaukee to be with Giannis all the time.

"It's a good place," said Charles, nodding intently. "It's good, we love it."

Charles and Veronica paused to watch Giannis score an exhibition goal during halftime of a Milwaukee Wave indoor soccer game recently and it is clear that they are proud and supportive parents as they cheer and wave to him along with everyone else in the charmed crowd.

The middle child of five boys, Giannis Adetokunbo — his Nigerian name — grew up with his parents living as illegal immigrants in Greece. Charles and Veronica and their first-born son, Francis, left Nigeria for Greece in 1991 "because they wanted a life in Europe," said Thanasis, the second-oldest son. "So we could have a better future."

Violence, political unrest and human rights issues have affected the people of the African country and Charles and Veronica felt they had to leave "because of the problems there," said Charles.

"For our future," said Veronica.

Charles and Veronica picked Greece because "we loved the country and they are nice people," said Charles. "They are welcoming."

They got on a plane and headed for their new country. They didn't know anyone there. "We just left," said Veronica.

Thanasis and Giannis said their father did handiwork and their mother watched other children to earn a little money. Thanasis and Giannis helped out too, selling watches on the street.

“We did a little bit of work to bring some money home,” said Thanasis.

As a child, Giannis played soccer like his father but also began playing basketball with Thanasis, and when it was pretty clear they were good at it in their early teenage years, they got serious about basketball in hopes of pursuing a better life.

Thanasis, 21, is now playing in the NBA Development League for the Delaware 87ers.

In May 2013, Giannis and his brothers were officially granted citizenship of Greece by the country in which they have always called home and changed their name to the Greek spelling.

"It meant a lot to me and my brother," said Thanasis.

But acceptance hasn't come easily for Giannis, who, as a national hero for his basketball talents, was invited to meet Athens Prime Minister Antonis Samaras last year. But Greece was also in a recession. Illegal immigrant issues were central to the political debates over the country's financial problems.

Nikolaos Michaloliakos, the leader of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party, singled out Giannis as an example and likened him to a "chimpanzee" during a television interview. Greece's basketball federation condemned the racist remarks.

"I didn't care," said Antetokounmpo, shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm not angry. How do you guys say it: hear it in one ear, it goes out the other one?"

Basketball is a national obsession in Greece, right alongside soccer. Games between the two top teams in Athens can be so rowdy in the stands that officials have conducted games without the fans for safety reasons. The Euroleague is a notch below the NBA and Antetokounmpo grew up a fan of veteran star guard Dimitris Diamantidis, who plays for Panathinaikos in Athens.

"Basketball is one thing that keeps people positive," said Antetokounmpo. "Our country is in a crisis, you know. A lot of people lose their job. They focus on sport. A lot of kids so they can do something with future."

Because of that, Thanasis and Giannis Antetokounmpo aren't new celebrities back home.

"They know us since we were young," said Thanasis, who finds countless new text messages and direct messages on his social media every day from Greek fans.

Giannis misses Greece and his friends there but is relieved he doesn't have to miss his family anymore. While his oldest brother Francis is in Nigeria, his younger brothers, Kostas and Alexandros, 16 and 12, started school at Whitefish Bay Dominican. Even Delaware doesn't seem that far away now.

"They're very excited to having us close," said Thanasis.

•••

With his family near and his support system intact, Giannis can fully concentrate on his game now, which should continue to grow right along with him. It's been fun watching him in his first NBA season, whether it is a spectacular blocked shot or the fiery side of him. We got a glimpse of that in a game at Phoenix where he drew a technical foul.

"They called a foul on me. I had a bad game and I throw the ball to the ref," said Antetokounmpo. "I'm like my mom, emotional sometimes, but when I get angry, I get like Dad. My dad is getting easy angry."

And that's why Antetokounmpo corrected his coach's playbook. The start of his NBA career is not a game to him. "It's job," said his father.

Whether he's going up against Durant, LeBron James, Paul George or Carmelo Anthony, or working on his defense and mid-range shooting, he doesn't back down.

"He wants to be good," said Drew. "He's taking this very, very seriously. He wants to be one of the best. He shows no signs of weakness. And other players, they know if a guy has a fear of playing against him. They can sense it. This kid didn't show any signs. He competed."

In one game, he threw a perfect pass to Ersan Ilyasova in the lane, but Ilyasova lost the handle on it. Giannis cringed and pumped his fists in frustration. He cares about every single play.

"I tell him every time you get the rebound, push it," said Drew. "You push it. Because he's not only a good passer, he's a willing passer."

It's not about money; he hasn't bought any big-ticket items. It's not about fame; he's not feeding his own ego with stats. It's all about basketball right now.

"Even though every day I come to practice and I make at least 20 mistakes," said Antetokounmpo. "When I come up to the coach I ask myself, what did I learn today?"

About Lori Nickel

Lori has worked at the Journal Sentinel since 1997, where she first covered high school sports and Marquette University men's basketball. She began covering the Packers in 1998 and since has been a part of the newspaper's regular weekly coverage of the green and gold since 2000. Before that, she covered sports for the Chicago Tribune, Gary (Ind.) Post-Tribune, The New York Times and had internships at the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, Milwaukee Journal and Sports Illustrated. Lori graduated from Indiana University with degrees in journalism and sociology. She is a native of Milwaukee's south side and graduated from Riverside University High School.